Tweeting while driving is the rumored cause of a fatal accident earlier this week that claimed the life of celebrity surgeon, Dr. Frank Ryan. According to unconfirmed reports, the famed plastic surgeon was reportedly delivering his final tweet when he lost control of his car and went over a cliff. Ryan was joined in the car by his prized border collie who survived the crash and was the subject of his final and now dreadfully ominous tweet.
Ryan is not alone in tweeting while driving, a study earlier this year revealed that 73 out of 100 drivers admitted to texting while driving, even though they knew such behavior was dangerous and/or illegal. A more recent survey suggested that 27% of adult drivers are actively banging out a text message while behind the wheel. That figure climbs up to 47% when you add in the equally dangerous combination of both sending and reading a text message while driving.
Over fourteen states have legislation on the books that ban this dangerous practice, including California, the home state of Dr. Ryan. Time and again, stories such as this show that the threat of a stiff fine is not enough to dissuade folks from squeezing out a quick text on the way home from an outing.
Most of the time, the driver manages to text and drive without any ramifications while other times, this decision can be deadly. While we don’t claim to be able to speak to the dead, we can say with some assurance that most folks who have been injured or killed as a result of texting and driving would counsel others to put that phone down and pay attention to the road. Sage advice, don’t you agree?